i want to congratulate and thank nancy pelosi for her tireless efforts in the last election cycle and all of her leadership. thank you, joe kelly, my fellow new yorker. i understand she had to leave, but i was always reassured to see her on television when i was worried about the outcome. i want to thank steve israel, who i think has been one of the most thoughtful people in the house and who proved once again that if you really want to be successful in the long run in this business, you have to be good politics and policy. you have to think about what we're going to do and how will affect people. i have the honor of campaigning for a lot of you in the last election. i am very excited about the new members. [applause] not only because if i were a member of this caucus, i would be in the minority, which i think is a good thing, but because the diversity extends far beyond the categories visible to the eye or that you can put in an adjective. there's so much difference here in terms of life experience and knowledge and understanding the various aspects of are extremely complex society t